Lumus—makers of transparent near-to-eye displays for augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR)—announced this morning that they have secured $15 million in a Series B round, led by global private investment firm Shanda Group and also by Crystal-Optech, a Chinese optical imaging company.

One of the main intellectual properties of Lumus is something they call a Light-guide Optical Element (LOE) waveguide. It is a patented way that they project AR, MR and other content and media onto special transparent displays that fit into smart glasses or head mounted displays (HMD).

Essentially, there are tiny prisms built into the display lens that are able to accept light from an extremely small projector while remaining see-through. This LOE combined with micro projector are major components that make up what they call their “optical engine.”

According to Lumus the advantage of their optics is that they can have a very bright, wide field of view with an extremely small footprint.

In my short conversation with Lumus CEO Ben Weinberger, he went as far as to say that “for every given field of view, Lumus can show a much brighter and better image at better quality and in a smaller form-factor than any other technology.”

For a quick primer on field of view, check this out, but generally, unaided human eyes have a forward, horizontal field of view nearly 180 degrees (114 of which are binocular) and a vertical field of view of about 135 degrees.

Lumus plans to use the funding in three ways: to increase production capacity, to expand R&D capability and also to increase business development.

In terms of production capacity, the company says it has already gone from producing 200-300 optical engines per month to right around 1500 per month. With additional capacity they are planning to, in the words of Weinberger, “produce many thousands per month.”

Regarding R&D, the fruits of this expansion may be seen as early as Q4 when the company is planning to bring their new 60 degree FOV optical engine to market (that’s 60 degrees in each eye making 120 possible for viewers).

Additionally, while many of Lumus’s existing contracts are military or mission critical projects, the company is still planning to use some of this funding to make additional displays with a more consumer-oriented angle.

Still, questions remain. Is the market ready for consumer AR devices? Is the market for HMDs getting crowded? Despite field of view advantages what about holography, as it’s all the rage with devices like the Hololens and Meta’s products. Will Lumus have an offering like that soon?

There are some answers. In terms of room in the market, Lumus is a company that already counts DAQRI, Atheer and others as customers. Lumus provides many companies with optical engines and development kits rather than compete against them with individual products. With regard to the consumer market they don’t plan to necessarily enter as a retailer, but again, as a provider—making more consumer focused optical engines that customers can use in their own products.

One Correction: As for Holography, while admitting that Microsoft did succeed with their hologram “world locking” persistence (e.g. being able to fix holograms to certain physical locations…even being able to walk around a hologram as though it were a real object), Lumus also produces 3D imagery that is considered holographic and does all the major tracking necessary. The company still feels that their own optical engines are superior to what is on the holographic display market today.